The burning desire to fulfill

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

 

WE have to develop an abiding and burning desire to fulfill the real purpose of our life. We should be clear about this ultimate purpose of ours so we can have the proper sense of direction and focus in our life, and the corresponding urge to fulfill it.

Our problem is that we often take our life’s real and ultimate purpose for granted, preferring to sway and dance according to the music played simply by worldly conditions. We prefer to be guided by our senses and emotions, or by our reasoning alone as expressed in our man-made different ideologies, philosophies, sciences and technologies, etc.

We ignore the guiding light of our Christian faith that gives us not only a global picture of things but also the means to attain our true goal of eternal life with God in heaven. We have to remember that our Christian faith shows us the ultimate dimensions and purpose of our life that definitely includes the spiritual and supernatural realities.

We often fail to realize that our earthly life is a voyage of faith in time that is heading towards the eternity of God. This predicament has to be resolved, and the earlier the better—of course, with due consideration to the readiness of each one of us to appreciate the value of our Christian faith, something that has to be worked on.

In this regard, the first thing to do is to look at the example of Christ who is “the way, the truth and the life” for us. In several occasions, Christ would say that what he was doing was in fulfillment of what the prophets of old, the advance proclaimers of God’s will for Christ and for all of us, said. (cfr. Mt 26,54.56; Mk 14,49; Lk 18,31; etc.)

It’s clear that Christ already had in his mind that he has to follow and fulfill a purpose and a mission already spelled out for him beforehand. This should also be the mentality we ought to have. We have a purpose and mission already spelled out for us beforehand, and we should do our best, with God’s grace, to fulfill it.

To keep himself faithful to this purpose and mission, Christ had to pray and to assert that he does nothing other than to do the will of the Father. “The Son can do nothing by himself,” he said, “unless he sees the Father doing it. For whatever the father does, the Son also does.” (Jn 5,19) On another occasion, Christ said, “I do nothing on my own initiative.” (Jn 8,28)

We need to adapt the same frame of mind as that of Christ. We are meant to fulfill the will of God for us, and not just our own will for that would constitute as nothing other than self-indulgence.

That’s why we cannot overemphasize the need for praying, for closely studying the doctrine of our faith, for making plans and strategies on daily, weekly, monthly basis, etc., so we would conform everything in our life to fulfill God’s will for us.

This desire and urge to fulfill God’s will should be made as alive and vivid as possible. This is the challenge all of us have to face and tackle. We have to learn to align everything to God’s will, always fighting against the constant temptations of distractions and other forms of self-indulgence.

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com